News / National
Zimbabwe gazettes the new 'spy law', sending news outles into panicked frenzy
10 Oct 2013 at 01:59hrs | Views
On 1 October the new 'spy law' was gazetted by the Zimbabwean government sending a lot of news outlets into panicked frenzy as fears of this law being used to spy on us started spreading.
The offending law is known as the Postal and Telecommunications Regulations which comes in the form of Statutory Instrument number 142 of 2013. It deals primarily with the registration of subscribers by service providers. The term service providers is used to refer to Land line operators (Telone), mobile network operators (both traditional operators like Econet and Telecel as well as CDMA operators), VoIP operators such as Guroo, ISPs, IAPs and other people involved in offering telecommunications services.
Under the 'spy law' requires, service providers are not allowed to provide services like internet and cellular services to unregistered users. All subscribers must be registered by 31 October or they will be disconnected. The required information shall be: A full name, permanent address, nationality, gender, SIM number and ID or passport number.
The subscriber must submit a completed form with this information to the network operator (or their agent instead.) Services like Guroo use an online form. Network operators are required to verify the accuracy of the information.
Changes to this information must be communicated to the network operator within a space of 21 days after making the change. This will mean lodgers who are constantly on the move will have to keep updating this information.
If you lose or break your SIM card you need to call the police and they will issue you with a written report. Network operators will now require a police report in order to issue a new SIM card.
Network operators shall maintain a register with this personal information and retain information up to 5 years after the subscriber has stopped using the service or after the network operator has closed shop.
The Authority (POTRAZ) will maintain a central database of this information for to ensure compliance with the requirements, law enforcement purposes, emergency services, national security purposes (oh! oh!) and research purposes.
POTRAZ will do unspecified stuff to ensure that this data is secure and the information is not transferable outside Zimbabwe but we are guessing hackers could still get their information anyhow. An officer of the Rank Assistant commissioner or a similar rank can write a letter requesting data relevant to an authority.
You can read a scanned copy of the law here for further details.
The offending law is known as the Postal and Telecommunications Regulations which comes in the form of Statutory Instrument number 142 of 2013. It deals primarily with the registration of subscribers by service providers. The term service providers is used to refer to Land line operators (Telone), mobile network operators (both traditional operators like Econet and Telecel as well as CDMA operators), VoIP operators such as Guroo, ISPs, IAPs and other people involved in offering telecommunications services.
Under the 'spy law' requires, service providers are not allowed to provide services like internet and cellular services to unregistered users. All subscribers must be registered by 31 October or they will be disconnected. The required information shall be: A full name, permanent address, nationality, gender, SIM number and ID or passport number.
The subscriber must submit a completed form with this information to the network operator (or their agent instead.) Services like Guroo use an online form. Network operators are required to verify the accuracy of the information.
Changes to this information must be communicated to the network operator within a space of 21 days after making the change. This will mean lodgers who are constantly on the move will have to keep updating this information.
If you lose or break your SIM card you need to call the police and they will issue you with a written report. Network operators will now require a police report in order to issue a new SIM card.
Network operators shall maintain a register with this personal information and retain information up to 5 years after the subscriber has stopped using the service or after the network operator has closed shop.
The Authority (POTRAZ) will maintain a central database of this information for to ensure compliance with the requirements, law enforcement purposes, emergency services, national security purposes (oh! oh!) and research purposes.
POTRAZ will do unspecified stuff to ensure that this data is secure and the information is not transferable outside Zimbabwe but we are guessing hackers could still get their information anyhow. An officer of the Rank Assistant commissioner or a similar rank can write a letter requesting data relevant to an authority.
You can read a scanned copy of the law here for further details.
Source - techzim
